The Shattered Cocoon
by The Sound Of Silver
Summary: Dreams and hope shatter like glass on the hard massif of reality, their remains falling into the cracks. Years ago, a young woman made a hard choice to die so others could live with hope in their hearts. But the ugliness that hides in hope's shadow rears its head, fear and hatred driving the world to war. In fantasy, life would be peaceful. In reality, does anyone deserve to live?
1. Chapter 1, Link 1

The Shattered Cocoon.

Summary: Dreams and hope shatter like glass on the hard massif of reality, their remains falling into the cracks. Years ago, a young woman made a hard choice to die so others could live with hope in their hearts. But the ugliness that hides in hope's shadow rears its head, fear and hatred driving the world to war. In fantasy, life would be peaceful. In reality, does anyone deserve to live? [FF-XIII/AU]

Link One: Fantasy.

Chapter One: Fate.

Promises.

Love.

Wishes.

Prayers.

Hope.

These things we would love to believe existed. But we know more than anything that they don't. We know that there is no almighty God listening to our mundane prayers, no being gifting us hope, no angels granting our wishes. We _know_.

And yet, these are our favorite terms.

We crave someone to hold hands with, to love more than anything in this world. To _die_ for.

It's ridiculously illogical.

Why would you die for someone when you have no guarantee that they will do the same?

It makes no sense.

One young woman made no sense, dying for the world and people she "_loved_." She became stone, holding a corrupt world aloft.

And a young man was left, gazing at her brilliance with tears in his eyes as he swore to save her. He became stone in his own way, fighting the corrupt world to save his beloved.

(Cocoon, 9 AF, Eden)

The blowhards weren't listening, clucking like old hens and grandmothers. They were overpaid, overfed and lacked any common sense.

The perfect room of politicians.

Hope damned every one of them to Oblivion, all the while maintaining his winning smile.

"The pillar is just a temporary crutch for the human race," one particular fat, trembling jowled man was saying through his own saliva. "Now that we understand the threat, we can re-levitate Cocoon."

Hope shot him a look, filled with outer confusion but inner annoyance. What did any of these idiots know about science or how to re-levitate Cocoon? It had only been nine years, even the best minds didn't know how to lift about ten thousand long tons in the air and keep it there; what could they do about a small _planet_?

He smiled with ice in his grin, "And how are we going to do that, Commissar Grant?" he asked condescendingly. "_Magic_?"

He wasn't opposed to magic, but the way he said it was to get them to understand how ridiculous the notion was.

Grant obviously got it, his jowls turning red in embarrassment.

"Obviously, _Director_," he hissed icily, "We can control the Fal'Cie now that the bad egg Orphan is gone."

Hope wanted to laugh out loud, didn't they get it? Orphan wasn't a "bad egg". They couldn't control the Fal'Cie. No one could.

"Yes, we can," another fat cat agreed mindlessly. "The pillar is a Pulsian curse. We need to reclaim our original quality of life." The others agreed with him.

Hope felt his left fingernails digging into his palm as he balled his hand into a fist behind his back. The Pulsian curse they spoke of was his friend. Vanille. The woman he...

He wanted to kill them.

Instead, he locked his face into a mask of impassiveness, his eyes frozen. "The pillar is a gift from a girl who didn't even need to lift a _finger_ to save us. She wouldn't have been judged if she had left us all to die," he said tonelessly. "She isn't a curse or a burden; she gifted us with the opportunity to —"

Grant cut him off, "Director, your judgement must be clouded by your recent... Grief," Hope bit down on his tongue. "And your involvement. Do you really have any new insight that isn't overshadowed by your agenda?"

Hope started to reply when his small phone began to beep in his pocket. Not now...

The councilors took that as a sign of his disinterest.

Grant smiled triumphantly. "And with that, we will conclude this meeting."

"But I—"

"_Good day, Director."_

()-(-)-()-(-)-()

"Those bastards!" Hope punched the dashboard, injuring his fist more than anything.

His driver, Avalon Cless, raised her eyebrow but didn't look away from the road.

"Did that make you feel better, Director?" she asked sarcastically, flicking the blue half of her hair out of her face with a finger.

He sighed and buried himself into the seat, "No, not at all. But did you hear them..." he groaned again. "I can't stand them."

"No one can and I'm surprised you don't let me slit their throats while they're asleep. I'd do it gladly, sir," she flashed him a look. They both laughed.

"That would be uncanny," Hope said, opening his phone and reading whatever had interrupted the meeting before. It was a message from his old friend and fellow ex l'Cie, Captain Lightning Farron.

(Update: The bio-engineered animals have taken over most of the Gapra Whitewoods. We've managed to seal a few gateways, but they're getting into cities now. Already, a few squadrons in Palumpolum have been in skirmishes with them. Funny thing, it looks like some of the gates have been sabotaged so we can't lock them back. Wonder who could have done that?)

Hope grumbled, catching the attention of Avalon again. She watched him out of the corner of her eye, something she had been trained to do in... _Kindergarten_.

"Something wrong, Director?" she asked, "You seem to be distressed."

"I am," Hope admitted, "PSICOM is sabotaging the gateways in Gapra. We can't seal in the mutts they have there."

"Huh," Avalon made a knowing sound, drawing Hope's suspicion.

"What?"

She raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, cut the crap," Hope said exasperatedly, "You know something about this?"

Avalon looked disgusted at his accusations, her aristocratic face wrinkling, "Nothing direct, sir. But I have a few ideas and they aren't good."

"Okay, what is the idea?"

Avalon stopped the car, putting it in park and swiveled in her seat until she faced him. "Since you and the newly formed Academy are supposedly in charge of keeping these beasts under control, and no one ever knew that PSICOM was bio-engineering, people can paint you as the villain," she flicked the blond side of her head, the left, before continuing, "It wouldn't be that hard either, you have a _sucky_ resumé. 'Hope Estheim: former Pulse l'Cie, is he still tainted by the dreaded lower world?' And not to mention Vanille. She's single handily responsible for Cocoon's current state. The public wouldn't put it past you to be responsible for the beasts rampaging."

"L'Cie can't control animals!" Hope protested, reminded of many of a time he had nearly been eaten or maimed. "And we release them onto Pulse, we don't keep them anywhere!"

"I know that, sir," Avalon replied, driving again. "But honestly, for every person that accepted us and your friends, ten hated our guts. People are like fat sheep more than humans nowadays. They've lost all our ingrained senses, our ability to _survive_ in the wild, which we have to do if we don't want to rot on Cocoon."

Hope sighed again, a debilitating headache coming on.

"Think about Eden nine years ago," Avalon was saying, "Hundreds died because they didn't believe that they were in danger; they thought it was just an elaborate show. It wasn't until the Cavalry and Guard started fighting that they actually started running and when they did, they were less than animals. Did you ever see the aftermath?"

Hope shook his head.

"It was like Armageddon," Avalon said curtly, her face frozen into a grimace. "I was part of the second evacuation. I saw Bresha and Gullis City. They were fighting over the last edible scraps, last drinks of water. It smelled of death and pestilence." She smiled bitterly. "But the people in Eden didn't want to be rescued by an Inhuman, so I left."

Hope's eyes traveled unbidden to the pointed feline ears on Avalon's head, replacing the need for human. On the sides of her head was simply smooth skin, hidden by her bicolored hair.

Hope frowned. Inhuman, a derogatory term used for Avalon's kind. It wasn't even her fault, or her parents, she was born in a tube. In PSICOM's Kindergarten. They were designed to be weapons, soulless beings that pulled the trigger when told to.

Ironically, when given the chance, they turned on their creators, a lot more soulful than originally believed.

Hope hated such terms. The Faunus, as they preferred to be called, had DNA almost identical to humans, give or take normal genetic factors. In science, they were human; in public eye, the one fed information by PSICOM, they were savage monstrosities, half beast.

Avalon noticed his look and sighed, "Director, honestly. I'm used to it. Until we have a chance to tell our stories, we'll be fifth-class citizens."

Hope knew that Avalon didn't like talking about her experiences in Kindergarten and honestly, would any Faunus? No one could blame them.

And possibly, Avalon felt a teeny bit guilty about Hope catching so much flak for hiring Faunuses to work in the Academy.

Hope caught onto these feelings and said, "I don't care about what people say about me, I didn't become Director so I could be popular."

Avalon smiled gently, a tiny and rare thing, "You are really obsessed with everyone in Cocoon hating you,"

Hope chuckled, "People don't hate me...right?" he looked like such a cute and confused puppy that Avalon laughed.

"Never look up your insta-poll results, Director."

Hope settled into his seat, deeply discouraged as he brooded.

()-(-)-()-(-)-()

(Gran Pulse, 9 AF, Oerba)

Captain Oerba Yun Fang's long black waves fell into her tanned face as she bent down and touched the sand beneath her feet. Crystal shards. Stone fragments.

Humans long since turned to sand.

She exhaled deeply, letting it blow through her fingers. Soon, she would be the last person allowed to tread here without special clearances.

As she stood up again, her back tingled in pain for a moment. God, 30 _sucked_. This was one of those moments she wished she had become crystal with Vanille. Her age would have stagnated at 21.

But she didn't and she aged, gracefully, she would like to add.

Her team waited by the ship, awkwardly shuffling as they waited for her to finish her rapture. Their captain was a very private person when it came to her emotions, sharing them only with her "family" of sorts.

Fang cleared her throat and they snapped to attention, snuffing out the game of tic-tac-toe they had drawn in the sand.

"Hey," Fang said, flicking her hair out of her face. "We got to get going if we want to get back before it gets dark."

They exchanged glances. "U - Uh..." One ventured tentatively, "You're done already, ma'am?"

She gazed at him, her peridot eyes searching his soul, "What? What do you want? Me to cry about times long since gone?" she said, slight laughter in her voice. Oh, she had cried before, but the time for that was long over.

They shook their heads in hurried disagreement. "No! Of course not, ma'am! Just —"

Fang boarded the ramp, saying, "I know, this place is my home, it always will be. But I have things to do and they aren't here," she beckoned them to follow.

()-(-)-()-(-)-()

(Cocoon, Gapra Whitewoods.)

"And here comes another," Lightning groaned in exhaustion before shooting again, taking down the beast before it could tear off any limbs. "Can somebody lock those gates, _please_?!" she shouted at her team, who were trying to fix the busted controls.

"I'm trying!" the fussy mechanic snapped, "What you want to fix a gate while you're being charged?"

She fixed her with the most hostile glare possible. She filched and added meekly, "Captain..."

"Yeah, that's what I thought you said," Lightning muttered, keeping her blade at her side as she watched the gates.

This was annoying. They had been at this for about six hours, plugging holes and shooting down the mutts that they couldn't get into cages, you know, the ones they had ran out of about two hours in?

"Can we speed this up?!" Lightning shouted to the blockade made up of her soldiers. "I'm not the only one tired of cleaning up PSICOM's messes, am I?"

They chorused their agreement.

Lightning was a born and bred soldier and she knew how to speak to soldiers. She knew they were getting exhausted, but this was the last gate they had to seal.

But, then again, she had said that before. Those PSICOM dicks kept opening them up and leaving them open when they ransacked their old labs.

The lights came on, the doors slammed shut and the locks engaged with a hiss, sealing the beasts in for now.

They cheered, exhausted and glad.

Lightning glared at the gateway, sliding her gunblade back into its sheath on her backside. Why wouldn't PSICOM seal the gateway back? Were they trying to discredit Hope and the Academy? Discredit her and her men?

No, no way in Valhalla. She would have to talk with Hope back in Academia later tonight.

()-(-)-()-(-)-()

(Gran Pulse, Academia.)

He had been sitting in his office for five seconds when Lightning burst in, despite the pleas from his receptionist to please wait, her blue and white tailed coat billowing behind her.

Hope saw the look on her face and smiled sheepishly, "H - Hey, Light... What's up?"

She leaned over his desk with every intention of throttling him. "Director, why am I being kept out of the loop?" she asked curtly, meeting his teal eyes with her icy blues.

Hope blinked in genuine confusion.

"What?"

The time for titles was over.

"Hope," Lightning said, her voice frozen, "Why are we stuck cleaning up PSICOM's messes and excavating ruins? You don't know what people on Cocoon say about us, about war. They say that PSICOM is planning to reactive the Fal'Cie."

Hope wasn't shocked, the way the Commissars were talking this afternoon they sounded ready to blow up Pulse and everyone on it if it meant that they could go back to the way life used to be.

"I know, Light and I —"

"Wait, you know?" Lightning leaned even closer to him, her face taking on even more intensity. "Hope, you mean I've been stuck playing _Mouse Trap_ with _behemoths_ for two months and you knew that PSICOM is prepping for a war? Why was I kept out of this loop?!"

"I'd love to know that, too," Fang said from the doorway, her arms crossed. "Why was I on research detail and not here, preparing for war? God, I've spent two months with nerds! All they talked about was flora and fauna and chromosomes. It was so _boring_."

Hope frowned. "That's almost all what I talk about."

"I know, you're boring, work on it," Fang said, lounging in a chair by his desk with her feet up. "But we have a problem, Hope."

"Can it wait?" Hope and Lightning said in different tones, his questioning and hers hostile.

Fang sat up, her face serious. "No, it can't. Hope, this goes beyond war and anything we think is important now."

Hope and Lightning exchanged looks. Fang was almost never serious.

Lightning sat down next to the woman and told her to continue.

Fang sighed, running a hand through her long black hair. "It's been nine years since Vanille..." she went silent for a moment, her eyes glazing over in sadness. "Anyway, it's not like crystal lasts forever. Vanille is no exception. Cocoon's stable for now, but when it comes down, what happens to everyone on Pulse? Everyone on Cocoon? The same thing that we tried to stop. And what about Vanille? She'll die. Do we have a plan for that?"

Hope's face contorted into a mask of thoughtfulness, his right hand on his chin. Fang had brought up his every thought for the past nine years. And in those years, he still hadn't caught his elusive answer.

"We..." he sighed in defeat. "We don't. I've been thinking about it for years but I still don't know."

Fang knew that Hope hated not having the answer to every problem. Especially when Vanille was involved.

Nine years ago, Vanille had given up everything to become Cocoon's crystalline crutch. She didn't even say anything to Fang, she just smiled as she let her hands go, slipping into the light.

Fang had been depressed about it, but Hope had been destroyed. That was when she first realized that he had been attracted to Vanille. But she had just wrote it off as attraction, it would fade as he grew into a man.

It grew into love, he had admitted it to her at nineteen.

She reached out and squeezed his arm reassuringly, "Hope, this is a problem that we need a lot of people working on."

"It's a nice thought," Lightning said, "But if PSICOM decides to go to war, we'll all be dead long before anything comes to fruition."

Hope nodded and Fang removed her hand from his arm. He looked to the ceiling, saying, "Maybe I can get those blowhards in Eden to listen and we can fight together."

They all laughed at the notion.

When she had recovered, Fang said, "Yeah, and we should get the goddess to stop ending our lives. Great thoughts, Hope."

"Okay, it's stupid, but a nice thought," Hope said, "But what can we do? We can't remove Vanille from her crystal, the pillar will fall. It's going to fall anyway and maybe not now but in a few hundred years. We're all going to be dead by then."

The door burst open and Avalon stood there, gasping for air as she tried to speak.

"Will everyone stop ignoring me?!" The receptionist wailed.

"D - Director!" Avalon gasped as Lightning approached her. "Sir, it's bad. The - The council voted."

Hope eyed her with confusion. "Voted on what?"

Fang felt something buzzing in her pocket and whipped out her phone, reading with increasing disgust on her face. "What the...?"

"What's going on?" Hope asked, standing up so he could read her screen. "Can I know what's —"

No. No way.

Lightning read the message, gaping in shock. "Th - They can't do this..." she said.

"..." Hope bit his lip. "C - Can I hear that?" he asked Fang and she handed him her device, her face full of disgust and rage.

("Citizens of Cocoon, we are facing a new threat in recent days.") Grant, it was Grant. ("By a man we thought could protect us! But once a menace, always a menace! The l'Cie and the Inhumans are a danger to our world and so are the Defectors! They frolic on Pulse and unleash beasts of prey on our homes, our cities! Our children! Ungodly beasts, and their deity is the Demon of Stone!")

Demon of Stone...? Wait, they couldn't be talking about Vanille. They couldn't be. She was a heroine. She saved more lives in one sweep than anyone would ever be worth.

("But now, we will fight back! We will no longer associate with the Defectors! They have chosen hell, let them rot! We will reclaim our way of life, we will fly once again!")

The Fal'Cie...

()-(-)-()-(-)-()

(Gran Pulse, 4 AF, The Yaschas Massif)

He wasn't supposed to be here, far from civilization, alone and brooding into his shoes.

Especially not on his birthday.

But his cheeks were soft red, his eyes paralleling the shade and wet. He was crying, and had been for about an hour.

From behind, Fang yawned, "Hope, it's your nineteenth birthday, what are you doing here?"

Hope flinched almost guiltily and hurriedly wiped away the trail that sadness had left on his face. He sniffed and cleared his throat, much to Fang's amusement.

"U - Uh, n - nothing, ju - just watching the sky...?" Wow, she didn't think it was possible, but he lied worse than Vanille.

She rolled her eyes. "Uh-huh, so the sky makes you sad?" she asked rhetorically. "That's a _bummer_. Considering that it's _everywhere_."

Hope knew his eyes were still red, so he kept them on his shoes, knowing that she wasn't going to stop badgering him.

"...Hope, I'm right here," Fang sighed, sitting beside him and stretching her joints. "_Talk_ to me."

Hope felt the dirt between his fingers, doodling, "This is where I told her I liked her smile..." he whispered, drawing a circle. "I told her that - that it made me happy. And then I _joked_ about it. I wonder if she ever thought I was serious."

Wait, what? When did that ever happen? Where was Fang when this happened?

"I just... I didn't know that that was what I was feeling," Hope drew a few curls around the circle.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Fang asked, gazing at him in confusion.

Hope blushed, "N - Never mind..." he stuttered embarrassedly.

Fang got it, her eyes twinkling with amusement. She grinned deviously, "Oh, you love her, don't you?" she accused, poking his chest.

Hope nodded slowly, the blood rushing to his face. "Y - Yeah. I do. I think I have for a while," he reacted to what he had drawn in the dirt. "Geez, I've got it bad."

Fang laughed at his discomfort and clapped a hand on his shoulder, "Hope, it's not that embarrassing. I think it's nice that you still care about Vanille, still love her after all these years," she turned to face the sky, her whole body weighted with sadness. "I sorta misjudged you Hope," she admitted with slight guilt, "I always put it off as just a crush, something that... Would just _fade_ as you aged. I thought you would go off with those other girls."

Hope raised his head, his face wrinkled in curiosity, "What girls? What are you talking about?"

Fang gaped at him with blatant awe written all over her face. "W - Wait, what? You've never even noticed all the girls around you at school? At the Academy?" Hope shook his head. "Okay, are you blind? What is _wrong_ with you?"

Hope shrugged, he had honestly never noticed any girls.

Fang exhaled rapidly. "Wow, you are a focused man, aren't you?" she said, brushing a hair out of his face. "That is spectacular."

She admired him out of the corner of her eye, his teal eyes and platinum hair set against pale skin that didn't change no matter how long he spent in the sun, which wasn't much. He was a handsome young man and it was hard to see why he wouldn't flaunt his beauty, but easy to see why so many girls, and a few boys, adored him.

She didn't know if Vanille did, but she knew that Vanille did care for the b — man, she had to keep reminding herself that Hope wasn't a boy anymore.

Hope noticed her stare and blushed, "W - What? What is it?"

Fang stood up and said, "Nothing, just..." she bit her lip, "When Vanille comes out of it, treat her well or I'll bash your head open with a rock and toss your body off of this damn cliff."

And with that pleasant thought, she left the birthday boy to his own.

()-(-)-()-(-)-()

(Cocoon, 9 AF, Eden)

"You can't do this!" Hope exploded as the Guard Templars forced him and Avalon to the ground, guns pointed to their heads. "You can't just tear thousands of citizens away from their families! Most in the Academy —"

Commi — Primarch Grant smiled down at the two on their knees. "But _Director_, you have no more say in this. We, the denizens of Cocoon, have voted on this matter. After all, we can't trust you anymore."

Hope glared hatred at this man. _Trust_? PSICOM was in charge of _trust_, Hope was in charge of keeping things safe.

"Are you kidding me?!" Avalon yelled as a Guard member stripped her of her long jacket, exposing the short clothing beneath. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now, you son of a bitch."

"It speaks!" Grant teased and Avalon gave a growl of rage. "Wonderful, Director; in your journey to slaughter the citizens of Cocoon, you taught a _dog_ to speak."

Her muscles rippled in anger, her very body shook. D - D - _Dog_...?

"Dog...?" Her ears were obviously feline. No, her creators had called her that. Dog, less than human, less than anything.

Hope saw her muttering to herself, her eyes blazing with a frozen fire. Soon she would start lobbing spells at everyone gathered here.

Hope had to defuse the situation. "Fine!" he yelled, grabbing the attention of everyone gathered there. "If you want to cast us out, cast is out, but let my employees gather up their lives first! Let them decide if they want to stay or leave!"

The councilors glanced at each other for a moment and nodded.

"Fine then," Grant said flippantly, "let them come back into our home world if they so choose, but you and every ranking officer are forbidden to ever return to Cocoon," he sniffed at the very presence of Avalon, who was still muttering to herself, "And keep your dogs out of Cocoon, Director. They stink up the air."

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)


	2. Chapter 2, Link 2

The Shattered Cocoon.

(I just realized that I didn't do an AN last time so this is last chapter's AN, which was more like an introduction to my crazy ways. The links are parts of the same story, but with different themes. Link One is Fantasy and it focuses more on the present. Link Two is Reality and it focuses more on the past. In this AU, Vanille is the only one who ended up in the pillar, which sounds like something she would have done anyway. I got really bored one day while I was cooking and came up with the idea, is that what you wanted me to say? Geez, stop staring at me... Anyways, this is a Hope x Vanille story, but we won't be hearing from her for a while, or not, or maybe we will?! Also, don't flame about the coupling I've done for the sake of my overactive imagination. Okay, that's it. Duces son, Finale C.)

Link Two: Reality.

Chapter Two: Hate.

Rage.

Sadness.

Lies.

Betrayal.

Sins.

These are the elements of reality, the second link in our world. These are the ones that flow freely through the earth, beginning when Pandora first opened the box and ended fantasy.

These are the things that make up a young woman's future, a young man's present, and a young Faunus' past.

(Cocoon, Day Of Fall, Bresha)

The crystal was cold underneath her hands, feeling more like ice than stone. How long had she been here, her feet throbbing from running, lying on the crystalized water amid the destruction?

She had no idea and honestly didn't care. Her creators had abandoned her and her fellows; they were free.

She smiled to the sky, her bicolored hair splayed out behind her on the crystal ground. Her ears twitched as she heard the strange sounds of the outside for the first time. Her nose inhaled the scents and she recoiled. She knew this stench...

She stood, her thin undergarments leaving little to the imagination, and she sniffed again. Her nose hated this smell, but she was familiar with it.

Rotting flesh.

She hesitated for a moment, the safety of the lab calling to her like a siren. M - Maybe she should go back...

She ran towards the scent.

The body was well hidden behind rubble and crystal shards, and, despite the smell, well persevered. Maybe this was a victim of the raging storm some days ago.

The woman wasn't the one producing the scent, in fact she smelled of gunpowder and something sweet. She had smelled something like it on one of the female scientists.

She hadn't rotted too much yet. She was still beautiful, soft silver hair and pale skin, or was that the bloodless death?

Avalon tentatively felt the woman's skin, cold and lifeless. She was long gone. She wasn't one of the scientists, what was she doing here?

Bones had been broken on this woman, the skin on her back burned and charred black. She had died painfully, but she still looked at peace.

No Faunus had ever died that way.

Avalon saw other bodies bent a gruesome angles, left there by her creators to die or rot. Did the humans even _care_ about each other? Didn't they care about at least burying their dead?

Well, Avalon wasn't anything like them. She would give these people some form of peace.

Hours later, her work was done. It had taken about an hour of hiking to find a patch of dirt big enough to bury each body and another two to dig the holes with her bare hands, but she did the job. Since then, the crystals had broken, explosions had rocked the ground and the lights had vanished. Maybe the world was ending.

She would find out later that it had.

The silver haired woman made something in Avalon's chest resonate with metaphysical pain. Was this... Sadness? Avalon had never felt something like this, especially not for a human. She was a product of a violent environment, desensitized to death and killing and sadness.

But this woman... Why was she so at peace when she knew death had come for her?

Avalon found some plants with strange buds the color of the woman's hair. They had blossomed into flowers, something she had never seen before. They smelled sweet and pure, like fresh water, another thing she had never seen.

She dug the plants up and planted them at the head of the woman's mound. She whispered prayers, the woman's necklace clenched in Avalon's clasped hands.

It was traditional, to take something to give to the child of a mother who had passed. She knew that this woman had a child, somewhere out there.

And Avalon would find them.

()-(-)-()-(-)-()

(Gran Pulse, 9 AF, Academia)

(Three days later)

Hope sat in his chair, listlessly reading a report his research team had put together about Vanille's pillar.

In nine years, it was already corroding. It was small, but what would happen over the next hundred?

Hope sighed and massaged his temples.

This and being banned from Cocoon?

What else was the universe going to toss at him?

Hope had heard stories of crystal, ones his parents read to him as a child. Truth be told, they were more like anti-Pulse propaganda, but one was more in the gray area. It had spoke of how one Pulse l'Cie re-awoke time and time again until the Sanctum Fal'Cie destroyed him. It was a harrowing tale to be honest, one with many gory descriptions, and he was never allowed to read so he snuck into their room indulge in it alone.

And he also had his own experiences to go off of. But he thought that it was just a miracle, Vanille's last prayers answered by whatever deities bothered with that rabble.

The report gave them six hundred years until Vanille's pillar broke.

If - If Vanille's pillar collapsed, if her crystal broke into shards, she would perish and so would everyone living on both worlds. How was he supposed to save her if she would fall long after he was gone? Maybe he would've had an option if Grant hadn't enacted an embargo with Pulse, but now what could be done?

His plans of mass relocation were gone, ashes in the wind.

What else...? There was always a solution to every problem, that was his motto.

"Um... Director, sir?" a gloved hand waved in front of his face, snapping him out of his dreamworld. "Did you read the report already?" she asked when he had blinked the dust out of his eyes.

He gazed up at the young woman, a short haired blond with curious blue eyes and a small silver pin on her chest that blared her title and name, "Director's Assistant, Alyssa Zaidelle."

Alyssa didn't wait for a reply, instead taking the tablet from his hands and reading it hastily. He sighed, why had Light insisted on _her_ being his assistant?

"Wow, 0.007% destabilization _already_?" Alyssa exclaimed in awe. "That's amazing and crazy."

"Yes, yes I'm sure it is, Alyssa," Hope said, sighing again. "What are you doing here? I thought you were on Cocoon with your family."

Alyssa made a face and said, "I came back. They - They wanted to stay on Cocoon... With my sister's grave."

Hope felt undeniably uncomfortable. Great, why had he mentioned it? Now she was thinking about her dead sister, the one who had died the day of the Fall.

"Sorry," he apologized, not looking at her saddened face. "I - I've just been thinking about how to fix a problem that proceeds us. How can we save everyone in the world when two-thirds don't want to leave?"

Alyssa shrugged and sat in a chair, "Wouldn't it be amazing if we could float Cocoon again?"

Hope shot her a glare. "Whose side are you on?"

"I didn't mean by the Fal'Cie! I meant with like... Magic..." Alyssa said with wonder. "Like how you and the Captains can make stuff fly."

"That's just l'Cie aero magic," Hope said dismissively. He was trying not to admit that he wasn't even that good at it anymore, "It can't make a huge planet float forever."

Alyssa thought, pouting and sliding her finger down her cheek. The same way Vanille used to...

He steered away from these thoughts.

"Gravity!" Alyssa burst out, her hands coming together in a loud clap. "What if we use gravity to float Cocoon? It has a huge magnetic field around it, one that's the exact same as Pulse's, the Fal'Cie powered this field and that's how it flew, right?"

Hope nodded slowly, wondering what this had to do with anything.

"Maybe," Alyssa had that same zeal in her eyes that Hope often did when he had an idea, that same slightly insane light. "Maybe, we could use that same field and charge it somehow!"

Hope sat up and gazed at her. It could... It could work... But there was one problem.

"But, technology isn't advanced enough to do that, and if we break Vanille's crystal in the process, we run the risk of killing her," he said, but he was still thinking about it. Could it be possible to float Cocoon using human ingenuity?

Alyssa sighed deeply, pouting again. "Aw, I didn't think about that... And here I thought I had a good idea..."

Hope ruffled his hair for a moment, using his fingers to rub the surface of his scalp. "N - No, it's a good idea, but by the time the tech will be available, we'll all be dead," he was thinking hard, his eyes narrowed to slits and his forehead wrinkled.

"What if we could go to the time when Vanille's pillar falls and float Cocoon then?" Fang asked, in the doorway, her eyes flicking from one scientist to the other. "I mean, that's the logical thing to do."

Hope and Alyssa gaped at her. How long had she been standing there, her arms crossed while she listened?

Fang shrugged, her shoulders rising and falling as she spoke, "What? Can't I have an opinion? Can I not have _ideas_?"

"I - I thought you were on Cocoon..." Hope said, making Fang snort.

"What would I be on _Cocoon_ for? I don't think my in-laws appreciate seeing my face more than necessary and I never really liked the place," Fang said bluntly, fingering the gold band on her left ring finger with slight bitterness.

Hope ran away from the topic by coughing. "S - So what was your idea again?"

"Why are you always standing in the doorway?" asked Alyssa quietly, a questioning look on her face.

Fang, ignoring the comment she had easily heard, looked up at Hope and said, "I was just thinking about how crystal stasis works," she paced the room, running a finger across the wooden shelves. "I mean, if we could replicate it, we could go to the period when Vanille wakes up. The tech should be available by then."

Hope thought carefully about it. How would they even go about something like that? But it was a great idea, especially if it meant that he could escape from Grant and the Commissars.

And see Vanille again.

Fang obviously knew what he was thinking about and nodded in silent agreement. "I know it's a stretch, but you're all smart people, you can figure it out, can't ya?" she said, more of a firm statement than a question.

Alyssa was thinking and so was Hope, but neither was sure how that would work.

"But, anyways, we need to talk about the second Purge," Fang was saying, messing with the chess game on a table. "There's been a massive amount of people coming to Pulse, the elevator's been running nonstop."

She flicked a glare to a corner, "And since I'm not allowed back on Cocoon, I can't even get any ships there to bring them to any city. Lots of them lose their way and die. And what do the bigwigs tell me? That I'm '_a_ _danger to the safety of Cocoon_.'"

"You did crack it open," Hope pointed out, only to get a chess piece sent flying at his head. He dodged it and Fang continued, "Anyways, so I'm not allowed by the pillar at all, can you believe that crap?"

Hope and Alyssa let her continue her bitter and fiery rant.

"I mean, my best friend becomes the savior of that useless chunk of Fal'Cie _spit_ and I get banned from even being near her? I guess, _sure_, I did blow a hole in the thing, but I was doing them a _favor_."

"What kind of _sick favor _were you doing us when you cracked a hole in our home?" Alyssa questioned sarcastically, frowning.

"The kind that saved your ass about eight hundred years later, you're welcome," Fang snapped.

Alyssa threw her hands up in defeat before standing and stalking away. "I'll talk to you later, Director."

Fang watched her leave before asking, "What's her problem?"

"I think you scared her off," Hope said honestly, earning another piece tossed at his head. This one bounced off his forehead and he winced. "Ow, what was that for?"

"For being dumb," Fang said, standing as well. "... About a ninth of our men defected back to Cocoon, so whatever you want to take out of it, we're down about two hundred people. I guess that includes your secretary?"

Hope nodded, "Yeah, I guess that she didn't want to be away from her family, which I can totally understand. I don't blame her. We don't have a plan."

Fang looked surprised. "What are you talking about? We've got a great plan: build back the cities of Pulse one person at a time and save Vanille. People have already set up pretty advanced towns nearer to the pillar. If we can do that in nine years, we can figure this crap out." She stood and declared, "I'm going back to the borderline area to see if I can help anyone, do I need your permission for that, _Director_?" She smiled with brazen sarcasm and Hope felt himself smile as well.

"Well, technically, yes. But you'd never take orders from me."

She laughed, "Don't sell yourself short, Hope. You even scare the living daylights out of _me_ when you're angry. Also, that big brain of yours is _terrifying_."

With that half insult, she disappeared from his office.

Déjà vu...

()-(-)-()-(-)-()

(Gran Pulse, 9 AF, New Bodhum)

"Do you want me to come with you?" Commander Sion David, the white haired pilot of her shuttle, asked as she hesitated on the ramp. Lightning flicked her eyes at her second in command and he saw that she was a bit green. She hadn't seen her family in about a year and she was never good at things like this.

She thought for about an agonizing minute and finally shook her head. "One surprise at a time," she said, heading down the ramp.

Sion sighed and began messing with the controls, turning the engine off and grabbing a tablet to read. Hmm, someone had been reading it and forgot to put it back on the page he was on.

What jerks.

Lightning was approached by the children that had gathered to awe at the shuttle, their awe now directed at her. They seemed almost afraid to touch her but that didn't stop the staring and shouted questions.

"Are you an Academy woman?"

"You have such pretty hair!"

"Hey, wait, she looks like Miss Serah!"

"Yeah, she does!"

"She's so pretty!"

Lightning blushed a bit at the comments, giving them a small smile and walking a bit taller. Her boots were ill-suited to the sand, but she did gain some traction as she walked to the house.

Her sister squealed from the porch and came running at breakneck speed. She leaped into Lightning's embrace. "Lightning! Oh my god, I haven't seen you since the ceremony!" She held her sister at arm length and admired her with a smile. "It's way too long!"

Serah Villiers, Lightning's 27 year old sister. She still had that sweet honest and genuine behavior that Lightning loved about her sister, even after about eight years of marriage to an idiot.

"It's great to see you too, Serah," Lightning said happily, a genuine smile in place. "Or should I call you 'Miss Serah'?"

Serah giggled, "They call me that because 'Mrs. Villiers' isn't interesting enough for them. It's better than —"

"'Meanie Miss Farron'?" Lightning said, a smug grin in place and Serah rolled her eyes.

"You give them homework once..."

"So, how's Polaris?" Lightning asked, looking for her five year old niece with her long blond hair and blue eyes, the hair belonging to her father, a man that Lightning was learning to not kill on sight.

"Great," Serah said, leading her sister to the porch of the NORA house where they sat down. "She found out she likes spicy chips rather than dirt, so that's something."

Lightning laughed.

"I mean," Serah continued, "She's a really bright girl and she's really intuitive, she loves hanging around Hope when he comes to visit so I think she found a kindred soul or something."

"Oh, God," Lightning laughed again, "Not another Hope."

Serah yelled at the kids, who were bored with staring at Lightning, "Hey! No roughhousing! Don't pile on top of each other!"

"Wow, mom much?" Lightning snarked, earning her a poke from Serah.

"I thought the older sister was supposed to be the one who had babies first," Serah snarked right back.

Lightning winced a bit at the comment, but kept her pleasant demeanor. "I just haven't found the right guy, is all. And then, there's the other thing..."

Serah reached for her sister's hand and held it. "It's not like... They have medicine for conditions like that, you know."

Lightning shrugged and said, "Yeah, and with Cocoon in a huge depression still, those pills have gone up to practically a hundred gil per. I can't afford months of treatment." She saw Serah's disappointed face and added, "Serah, I'm fine, okay?"

"It's just... Not fair, Lightning, you sacrificed so much and you can't even have the life you want."

Lightning tried not to think about it that way. Besides, whoever said she didn't have the life she wanted? She smiled at her sister. "I have enough for now."

"You're a ticking biologic bomb, sis," Serah said, frowning a bit. "... Do you even have a boyfriend?" She asked, digging for gossip.

Lightning adverted her gaze, proving Serah right. "Oh my god, you do!" Serah gasped.

"He's not a boyfriend, just a guy I like talking to because he gets me."

Serah fixed Lightning with a bewildered stare. "Claire, that's exactly what a boyfriend is," Serah shook her head. "Geez, did you forget already?"

"Serah, it's been about fifteen years since I've had a boyfriend, and I don't have one now," Lightning denied, her arms crossed. "I'm thirty years old, I don't have _boyfriends_."

Serah nodded sarcastically. "_Right_, because you're a _mature lady_."

"Exactly, a mature woman with a steady job in the Academy. I have a life and I don't need a partner _leeching_ off of me," Lightning agreed firmly, watching the sky pass them by. "... You're the family type of a woman. I've never been like that. I can't imagine being at home all the time, making egg sandwiches and matching socks and obsessing over what my child should wear."

"How do you know that I make egg sandwiches?" Serah asked.

"All you ever did when you lived with me was make egg sandwiches, I think that was the only thing you ever knew how to make," Lightning said, smirking again.

"To be honest, that's probably true."

They both laughed and stayed there for a while.

"... You haven't asked about Snow," Serah ventured, making her sister grimace but it was less of a grimace than usual.

"Yeah, I don't want to know. I thought I was ready, but you're never ready for a guy having sex with your little sister," Lightning said, frowning a bit. "It's unnatural."

"It's perfectly natural," Serah shot back, pouting. "We have a great kid because of it."

"Uh-huh," Lightning fixed her with a look. "The kid ate dirt for two months, there's something wrong with her."

"That's not fair," Serah said, "Polaris wanted to know what it tasted like, is all."

()-(-)-()-(-)-()

(Gran Pulse, Paddra Ruins)

"Look at them," Didactic snorted, gesturing to the live feed playing on the screens. Humans were piling atop each other, trying to get on the last ships sent by the Academy before they left. It was, needless to say, a riot.

Avalon stole a glance at the tall, middle aged male Faunus, with his proud and stern silver wolfish ears and blinding golden eyes, is was easy to see why he was one of the leaders of her people.

She, the Didactic and several other Academy workers were gathered in the tent, thoughts of work drowned out by the sight on display, thanks to the Sanctum. Technically, no one on Pulse was supposed to be able to see any Cocoon datanet feeds, but it wasn't _that_ hard to hack into the Eden networks if you had someone who knew the passwords back and front.

"It's disgusting," Avalon agreed, her ears twitching in annoyance. Call her a dog, will they? "But what more can we do? They won't let us send anymore ships to the base. Apparently that was seen as a sign of '_Pulsian aggression_'." she quoted one of Grant's frequent, _almost daily_, rants. "So Director Estheim said that this was the last of the ships. After that, people are on their own."

"That's sick," a black haired woman said in disgust. "We've been trying to help everyone on Cocoon and now we're banned from doing our jobs. We had to close down the Bresha excavation in less than an hour and then PSICOM torched whatever we couldn't bring with us," she shook her head sadly. "Years of research _gone_ in an instant."

"Did you honestly think that PSICOM would allow us to take anything we found there back?" Avalon said, looking at the woman and the group at large. "Half of the data is incomplete and the other half is useless without further research."

The woman glanced up at Cocoon, a blinding beacon once, now, dim. "What are they going to do with the Atlas arm anyway? It's not like they can get it running..."

The Didactic shushed their conversation as Primarch, or Primary Target, Grant appeared, ready to rant and rave again. _Yippee_, what had they done to deserve _that_?

("This is what happens to those who Defect! They fight like lost animals!")

A pink haired and rabbit eared Faunus flicked the screens off, saying, "Whatever, blowhard. We don't need to hear you talk anymore."

Afterwards, Avalon sat on the ledge of the cliff, reading through every file that had been saved from the second Bresha Purge. From what she could glean, the Academy scientists had found a few artifacts in the ruins, including Hope's favorite, the Atlas arm. Where the things had come from, no one had any idea.

Or maybe they did. _That_ research was gone.

What else? What else would PSICOM and the Sanctum take away? Although, technically, they were taking away about half of the food supply for Cocoon; Pulse could survive on its own, Cocoon would be launched into a civil war, over food, and then the Academy would have to swoop in and make things right, namely, stopping those idiots from slaughtering each other.

Like what had happened to the denizens of Paddra.

Desolate and honestly kind of creepy, this was once a city of farseers, driven to war by inevitability and self fulfilling prophecies.

And now, history would repeat itself on Cocoon.

In a fantasy world, the end of the Fal'Cie should have been the end of this... Anarchy and distrust. Their plans had failed and yet they were winning still.

She glanced at the pillar. Had one young woman really done that on her own? Why? Why would she die for a world that hated her?

Why? Avalon had asked Hope about it constantly and he always replied that she done it for atonement; she was like that, he said, one who would gladly die for the greater good and atonement for the damage her lies had done on Cocoon.

Afterward, he was always depressed about it, hiding in his room for a while.

Avalon was born into a place where sacrifice was considered a sickness. Even after nine years, the term seemed so... _Human_, so foolish.

Why would you die for another person when you had no guarantee that they would do the same?

But parts of her understood, deep down. Maybe it was the human nine-tenths of her DNA. The parts of her she had never fully been allowed to be. The parts of her she had buried on birth.

The parts that weren't considered animal, Inhuman. Less than.

...

She was secretly glad that Bresha was now forbidden to her and any Academy worker. The Faunus liked their collective past to remain buried under crystals and dirt.

Where it needed to be.

Avalon turned back to her tablet, reading again.

(The specimen codenamed Atlas Arm appears to react when strong electromagnetic fields are placed near the specimen codenamed Black Diamond. Further research would possibly support the past hypothesis that the Black Diamond is some sort of control device for the Atlas Arm. For now, the specimens are to be kept separate from each other.)

(Questions remain. Is the Atlas Arm a device of Pulsian origin, possibly brought here when the Fal'Cie repaired the hole in Cocoon or something more sinister? The ruins hide a number of other artifacts in their labyrinthine passages, possibly linked to the Atlas Arm.)

Avalon knew that something like that had a body. Possibly it was weapon, like the Ark's cargo.

And now, the Sanctum had full control of what happened to it next. That was a horrifying prospect.

The Sanctum had already proven that they no regard for life.

()-(-)-()-(-)-()

(Cocoon, Bresha Ruins)

There it was, surrounded by a group of soldiers and scientists, sticking out of the gaping hole, it's fingers splayed to the sky.

Noel Kriess watched from the shadows, hiding behind pillars and ducking under fallen arches as they shouted at each other. The faded smell of smoke still clung to the air and there was a slight char on some surfaces.

Was there a fire here? He tried to remember. Everything was a blank aside from the few days he did recall.

He knew his name, it had been written on the faded clipboard he had found, his age, about 18 years old and that he was male and not female. Outside of that, he was clueless. Oh, wait, he knew that he was naked when he woke up. Now, he wore a black armorsuit that he had found inside of that weird room.

His eyes raked the giant arm as if it held the key to his dormant memories. What was this thing? Why were the scientists so interested in it?

"What are you...?" Noel whispered to the arm. "Some sort of machine?"

"Maybe it is," tiny, seven year old Yeul chorused from behind him, her right thumb in her mouth. "Do you think they made it?"

Noel shook his head without looking back at her. Yeul had her left hand on his right sleeve as she pulled on it, apparently either bored or scared.

"They look like they're trying to fix it," Noel reported, his blue eyes flitting around the area as he checked to see if anyone had found them. No one had so he turned back to the hand.

"Oh, so they broke it?" Yeul said with childish simplicity. Noel had to chuckle a bit.

"Maybe," Noel said and took her hand. "Come on, they aren't looking. We should get going."

"Going?" Yeul asked as they ran through the ruins, hiding when necessary. "Where?"

Noel struggled to remember. "Ah, we're going to the world in the sky, remember?"

Yeul nodded excitedly. "The one up there?" She pointed to the surface of Gran Pulse, the one they could see in the sky. Noel nodded.

"That's it," Noel said, leading her inside of the ruins to avoid the guards stationed outside. "We just have a little more to g —"

"What do you mean it's not operational?!" A chubby man screamed from a podium, tossing something at a cowering scientist. "Make it operational!"

The scientist obviously said something the man didn't like because something else got beaned at her head.

"Make it work, you idiot! Or I'll have your head on a stick!"

"What's that all about?" Noel wondered, ushering Yeul back into the ruins.

()-(-)-()-(-)-()

(Gran Pulse, Academia)

She was right there, her sweet scent flowing through the wind with each move, her peridot eyes smiling and genuine, her coral hair as brilliant as the day he lost her.

No, she couldn't be...

How? How could she be here? She was gone! She —

She brushed his hair out of his bewildered eyes, giggling, "You always thought too hard about things like this."

Her voice was so comforting, so soft and feminine. He had always loved her voice, her smile.

"Did you? And here I thought you were joking," she said in surprise, whispering her words. W - Wait. Had she heard his thoughts? "Of course I can hear you," she laughed, "You think really loudly."

Hope blushed and she smiled.

"Were you even real?" Hope asked finally. "You seem so..." He trailed off.

"'Angelic'?" The look on his face told her everything. She had been in his thoughts again... She laughed softly as he came to that conclusion. "I told you, you think too loudly."

"How can I think quieter?" Hope said, frowning.

"You have to feel at peace and not think so hard," Vanille scolded gently, kissing his nose. "It's easy. It's like falling asleep, you know?"

"..." He sighed, "What does that even mean?"

Vanille kept on smiling. "It doesn't have to mean anything. It just has to sound nice."

"Is that your philosophy for everything?" Hope asked in exasperation.

Vanille left him with that mystifying smile, vanishing into small wisps of smoke.

He awoke instantly, sweat covering his brow and his face buried into the comforter. He had fallen asleep long before he had hit the bed again. Light had invented a term for what he had. Sleep _desperation_.

Hope had dreamed of Vanille again. But this time it was so real, she could've been in this bed with him.

He should have asked her a million other questions, told her a million other things.

Instead, he choked on his own tongue like a love struck teen.

...

Maybe he still was.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

So, I got bored again and wrote this while watching 'Man v. Food'. EAT THAT HOT DOG, ADAM!

Ahem.

So we finally hear from Vanille in the form of some sleep desperate dream. I know the feeling, Hope. You get so into it, you sell your soul to the devil for sleep immunity.

Oh wait, only creepy writers and people who wait in line for Calvin Harris tickets do that?

Thanks for the clarification.

(I LOVE YOU, C. H! I'm not creepy, I just want to touch your face!) XD, that was super creepy.

Anyhoodles, Fang's married (Sort of, not in the traditional way you'd think) and Lightning might have a boyfriend. Two things I wanted to happen in 13 but never did. Like Hope and Vanille getting married in 13-3...

I'll let y'all figure it out, and yes, I just used y'all and I'm from the Mitten State. Suck it up, weenies.

So, Noel and Yeul make an appearance, which means that next chapter will maybe be about them, who knows? And yes, I did make Yeul a seven year old, this will make sense later on.

(Toast Writer: NO, IT WON'T!)

(Me: BE SILENT, SLAVE!) *Tosses object at Toast Writer*

Anyway, it looks like someone's trying to activate the Atlas Arm but they did sorta burn down half of the Academy's research, so it might take a while. So, review or you'll never see your child again.

Oop, I meant the next chapter! I don't know where your kid is! Heheh... Slip of the tongue...

Duces son, Finale C.


End file.
